BLM mulls options for mustangs

Documents obtained from the Bureau of Land Management through the Freedom of Information Act that detail management options which include destroying animals have outraged wild horse advocates. But the BLM said euthanasia remains "a last resort option."

BLM employees as well as a USDA veterinarian held weekly implementation team meetings beginning in July of 2008 in which they discussed and developed strategies that included: euthanasia of unadoptable or unsaleable wild horses, the sale of wild horses without limitation, castration, and lowering the ratio of mares in the wild herds.

In October, they completed a 68-page document titled "Alternative Management Options." A press release from The Cloud Foundation compared it to genocide committed against Native Americans. "Minutes from these meetings as well as the draft plan reveal what amounts to 'the final solution' for the American mustang," said Ginger Kathrens, filmmaker and Volunteer Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation in a press release. "Despite a huge outcry from the American public last year regarding BLM plans to kill wild horses in holding, the agency is still pressing forward with a plan to destroy our American mustangs both on and off the range."

A Cottonwood horse advocate cites "poor management" by the BLM.

"It's a documented fact that the Bureau of Land Management has no intention to help wild horses," said Linda Richards of Cottonwood's Safe Haven Horse Rescue. "In fact, they have been caught planning how to kill thousands of healthy wild horses and how to get around different federal laws set in place to help the horses. This is despicable. How can we let the BLM be in charge of the welfare of our last wild horses?"

The document was prepared at the request of BLM management and intended to analyze the implications of implementation of euthanasia, according to Tom Gorey, BLM senior public affairs specialist, in Washington D.C.

"It was a draft product, produced from release through FOIA," Gorey said. "No decision was made, and nothing has changed in terms of our view of euthanasia as a last resort option."

The report was undertaken after the Government Accountability Office found the BLM out of compliance with the 1978 amendments to the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. "It said we were to humanely put down horses not adopted," Gorey said. The law was amended in 2004 to direct BLM to sell without limitation horses over 10 or those that have been passed over for adoption three times.

"We are out of compliance," Gorey said. "We have approached sales the same way we do adoptions. We are looking for good buyers, not slaughterhouses or killer buyers."

Killer buyers are those individuals who buy horses, wild or domestic, with the intent to resell them to slaughterhouses now operating in Canada and Mexico.

"No decision had been made to put down horses which can't be sold, or to sell without limitation," Gorey said. "We have sufficient funds to get through the year. There is not anything imminent."

In effect, the GAO told the BLM it needs to talk to Congress. If Congress does not want the BLM to comply, the directive should be removed, Gorey said.

"Legislation moving now would end our Sales Authority and say euthanasia could only be used to put down a dying horse," Gorey said.

"If Congress says it does not want to go in this direction, we have to know what are the means of implementing that and what would be consequences of doing so," Gorey said.

The document is only for BLM management to look at and consider, he said. "With The Cloud Foundation, there's a lot of over-the-top rhetoric, inflammatory and a distortion of what we're doing," Gorey said. "It doesn't advance the cause to find solutions to what we are facing."

The document is not a plan for extinction, according to Gorey.

"It's not a decision document," he said. "There's no secret plan to manage for extinction as The Cloud Foundation has alleged. All you have to do is work with the program to see there is genuine care for the animal. Some of the provisions in the 1971 law are not well liked, but they do exist. GAO has said we are out of compliance."

What the BLM is facing are more horses and mounting costs in a recession.

Herd sizes can double about every four years so thousands must be removed to preserve other mandated public uses such as cattle grazing, oil and gas drilling and recreation, according to the BLM.

"We have 36,000 horses and burros on public lands in 10 western states," Gorey said. "That exceeds by 9,400 how much the land can support in terms of wildlife, cattle, recreation, oil and gas. The bottom line is we want herds to be viable and in balance with other uses."

In Fiscal Year 2008, the cost of holding and caring for these animals exceeded $27 million, or three-fourths of the $36.2 million budget.

"We have more than 31,000 in holding - 22,000 in long-term pastures and 10,000 in short-term holding being prepared for adoption," Gorey said.

Adoption has fallen into hard times along with the economy. In 2005, 5,700 horses and burros were adopted; in 2008, that number dropped to 3,700.

"We're in a position where the market is very soft," Gorey said. "There's not a lot of demand."

In a weak adoption market, an excess of domestic horses are competing with mustangs for homes and even for grazing on BLM lands. "People are dumping horses on BLM land." Gorey said. "We're facing many challenges. The holding cost is most threatening. We want thriving, healthy herds on public hands."

"It's really a challenge," Gorey said. "The prospect for the future right now is continuing to hold more and more horses. It's very challenging, complex. There's no realistic fertility control solution at this time."

The Extreme Mustang Makeover program, in which wild horses are gentled, ridden and then auctioned, does work, and Gorey recently attended one in Sacramento. "There were 22 at the Extreme Mustang Makeover, and all were adopted out.

They went from $4,000 to $400, with the average $1,100 per animal. We are doing our best."